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Friday, 14 May 2010

St John the Baptist, Hellington

YOU know you’re seriously off the beaten track when the cow parsley in the church yard is almost as tall at the arches in the porch. This is St John the Baptist at Hellington, a hamlet near, well, near nowhere that anybody’s heard of really. It’s close to Carleton St Peter, which is close to Claxton in a soft underbelly of Wherryman’s Way land where a church appears around every corner – despite a lack of obvious communities nearby. I often drive home along these lanes as a gentler alternative to the A146. The porch, incidentally, is the highlight of the church. It baffles the experts who can’t work out when it was built – estimates vary from medieval to Victorian - though Simon Knott has come up with a customarily erudite solution to an architectural mystery. For more go to his excellent Norfolk churches website.

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The Book

The Blog

The blog started as a way of publicising Steve's book on the Wherryman's Way which was published by Halsgrove in 2010. Then it became a way of updating Wherryman's Way walkers. More recently it has spread its wings to the wider Broads. Around 1000 people take a look every month. Steve is now writing a second book provisionally called Riverside Norwich. You can follow his progress on that project here.

The Walk

The Wherryman's Way runs for 35 miles between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, following the route the wherries used to take along the rivers Wensum and Yare. Six years ago I was sitting in the White Horse, Chedgrave wondering why no-one had written a book about it. A few pints later my mates had convinced me I was the man. It was published in May 2010.

Footpath Closures:

Work repairing flood defences means sections of the walk can be closed for months at a time. Get the latest info here.